Ganagu/Time
(This article describes the act of timekeeping. For the element, please see the relevant entry.) Time is an important factor in understanding Ganagu history. As the astronomic system of Polaris α differs slightly from that of our own Solar System, so will the time on Ganagu. __TOC__ Seasons and Months Like Earth, Ganagu has seasons, due to the tilt on its axis. Unlike Earth, however, Ganagu's months are marked by the movements of the two moons around Ganagu such that the moons will always "meet" at midnight of the new month and at middday of the middle of the month precisely, thereby having each group of three months fall conveniently within the space of one season. Furthermore, each month is named after a god or goddess of the Old Order, in conjunction with his/her patron animal. Spring The first season of the year, it begins at moon-meet of (Fire) and ends at moon-meet of (Water). The months are as follows: * (Fire Dragon) *(Earth Turtle) *Zhytefaylzayradhyn (ZhFR, Zhelradhyn) - The Month of the Wind Sparrow Summer After Spring: *(Water Whale) *Nimbadembangy (NDB, Nibadgy) - The Month of the Thunder Fly *(Nature Beast) Autumn As Ganagu starts tilting away from the sun *(Light Phoenix) *(Shadow Jaguar) *(Weather Owl) Winter The last season of the year, it is when Ganagu is tilted furthest away from the sun. As a general result, the climate in the Northern Hemisphere is frigid with long nights, while the Southern Hemisphere is at its warmest and sunniest. The months that fall in winter are: *Zirphoxataruoldyn (ZXR, Zirxatrolyn) - The Month of the Time Spider *Khaylth-Subyknamyn (KSN, Khasubynamyn) - The Month of the Space Monkey * Paozhunarnyn (PZN, Paozhunarnyn) - The Month of the Ice Wolf Measuring Time Time on the watch in Ganagu, unlike that on Earth, differs in that, since is rotates on its axis more slowly, the days would last twice as long as on Earth. However, given the system that many modern Ganagu use, each day actually lasts approximately 1.389 Earth days, and each year about 1.598 Earth years. This may be a contributing factor to the relative ease at which Ganagu live their lives in the long run, and their remarkable efficiency in the short run. *50 seconds (See The Concept of the Second, below.) = 1 minute *50 minutes = 1 hour *48 hours = 1 day *5 days = 1 week *7 weeks = 35 days = 1 month *12 months = 1 common year The Leap Year Of course, the above is a nice rounded estimate of their usual days; due to eccentricities, each year actually has an extra 1/5 of a day. To counter that, the current calendral system utilizes three rules regarding leap years, which have an extra day compared to common years: *One leap year occurs every five years. *Those that are divisible by 100 are not considered as such, but *those divisible by 500 are. Ergo, the year 1200 (After St. ) is not a leap year on Ganagu, but 1000 (After St. ) is. In the Universal Calendral System, the third rule will always override the second. Years As was stated before, twelve months make up a year on Ganagu. What is more important, however, is the way years are measured. Before the rise of St. , people often dated their calendars in reference to important historical and political events, like the founding of Zafarganyk's capital , or the day when a great figure of society was born. However, when people heard of St. and his great deeds towards human society, either directly or by word of mouth, they deemed him to be the greatest person of all, and it became the standard to date the calendars after his birth. It was only centuries after his death that people finally figured out the true birthyear of the saint---25 (Before St.). Days of the Week There are five days of the week, each traditionally named after one of the five most popular deities of the Old Order, but also given a numeral based on their position in the week. The days are thus: #(Light Day) #(Thunder Day) #(Earth Day) #(Wind Day) #(Time Day) The Concept of the Second In the old days, the second was always measured in Ganagu as the space of time between two blinks of "a normal, non-flirtatious eye". This always caused confusion, however, as people had different rates of blinking, and some could blink as if flirtatious, even if they did not mean to. Eventually, the King of Zafarganyk of the time, , proposed a universal standard that the second be composed after the space between two blinks of his studious daughter, Princess Yora. This the people initially were divided over, until they found that in the long run, it helped facilitate the time with the passing of the seasons and thus simplifying the farming schedule. Thus this standard was held high in Zafarganyk (and later Ri Medurinati and abroad) until 1156 (After St. ), when the second was later refined to be the duration of time in which 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) waves of pure white light are captured by a luminometer by the Science Institute of Medurimadi. Time Zoning With the advent of advanced timekeepimg, and full awareness of the world and the inconsistency of time therein, around 1209 (After St.) a council was summoned at the Mastroa Summit to create a basis of time measurement in which each region could match up their time with the time of another region. After much discussion, the then Chief Diplomat of Zafarganyk, , proposed a system of time zoning by longitude where the planet would be divided into 48 sections, one for each hour of the day. That would make each section roughly 2.083% the circumference of the equator, or 918.4 km at its widest. Furthermore, he set zero Ganagu radians---Canturia's location---to be midnight by default and counted forward one hour per zone to the east, and backward one hour to the west, until the two zoning systems met at the exact opposite longitude to Canturia. Where those zone met was to be a special line called the Trans-Day Line, where time would move forward one day when crossing eastward, and one day backward when crossing westward. This was met with approval for four of the seven diplomats present, but the Chief Diplomat of Medurimadi, , also brought up the problem of "polar jet lag"--a severe mental disorder that occurs as a result of prolonged stasis at the polar regions, where one without a good means of timekeeping or direction would lose track of time and space and eventually be driven insane by the lack of order and reliability. Thus came another proposal that the polar regions get their own special time zone, for latitudes above and below 48 Latitude North and South respectively. They would follow Canturia's time zoning, but the North Pole (50 N) would be half a year ahead of the South Pole (50 S) due to the planet's tilt. After much criticism of this system, it was eventually appended to 's proposal to become the Universal Time Zoning Law, adopted throughout the world throughout the fifteen years following the council. Category:Concepts Category:Ganagu